Review: Dead Envy

Synopsis:

Aging Rock artist David Tangier’s sense of identity is all but destroyed as he works cutting hair to provide a comfortable life for himself and his wife. His sound and age bind him to the Rock of the 2000’s, where his band Katatonic Spin once ruled the scene. David cannot tolerate that his entire existence has fallen prey to the persona of “the has been.”

By taking one last long shot at maintaining his integrity, David sets out to organize the follow-up album that he never had the chance to make. When Javy Bates, a mysterious young musical talent shows up for a job at David’s salon, this Rocker thinks he has found a solution to his alienation. Initially guarded, Javy soon opens up… as he has an agenda of his own.

What We Thought:

When I watched the trailer for Dead Envy, I thought it would be one of maybe two kinds of movies. It comes across at first as a stalker fan trying to get close to an idol. Then it also came across as an aging rock star who finds someone with a new sound and wants that sound for himself. Unfortunately the movie is both in a way and I’m not quite sure if it works because of it.

I’ll try to be as spoiler free as I can, but some of the issues I have with the film will have some spoilers in it. The stalker fan is someone with a new sound that the aging rocker wants to steal from. The stalker fan gets the rocker into trouble with the wife, tries to blackmail him with pictures yet also pushes him to make more music.

The aging rocker listens to the fan’s demo and likes the sound. He wants the sound and I’m expecting him to want to kill the fan to get that sound. I won’t spoil the ending, but it’s a mix of both of these concepts. Really hard to explain all this without ruining the entire movie.

The actor playing the stalker fan is good, at least for this role. He has a good creepy look that instantly tells you this Javy guy is probably a weirdo at the minimum. The actor playing the aging rocker also wrote and directed the film. He’s fine, but doesn’t necessarily stand out. I guess that works because his music days are more behind him as he makes money cutting hair. Production value, acting, set design, all that is what you expect from an indie film you’ve never heard of.

Dead Envy doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. Throughout the film I wasn’t sure which way it was heading and who was going to die. With dead and envy in the title, you clearly know something bad is happening to someone. It’s not a terrible movie by any means I just don’t see myself wanting to watch it again.